Audience Engagement: What NOT to Do

Audience engagement can be a struggle for speakers.??You want the audience to enjoy your message, and you want to be effective.??You want smiles on people’s faces while you also maintain your credibility.??It’s a fine line to walk in each instance, and you want the best for you and your listeners.??And it can be easy to make missteps with audience engagement as you walk that line and dance that jig.??Here are three mistakes to avoid when attempting audience engagement and what to do instead.

You ask for a volunteer to read text you have displayed on a slide.

People can silently read content to themselves faster than someone can read it aloud to them.??Instead of asking for a volunteer to read what’s visible to everyone, tell everyone to take one minute to read what’s on the screen, then proceed with your presentation.??You may ask “Bridgett, what if I have content that takes more than one minute to read?”??My answer is you need to revise that slide.??

What to do instead:??You want to remain in command of your presentation, and people reading for too long is not a good use of anyone’s time.??Display a great graphic that conceptualizes the point you want to make, give participants pre-reading to complete prior to your presentation, make the reading a short one and have everyone read it silently, or put participants in groups so they can work together to review the content and comment on it, but make sure you give a great question to guide that commentary.??More on that later.

You ask for more out of a volunteer than what was originally advertised.

If the ask is that someone read the content on the slide, and that’s all there is to the ask, then that’s all the person should be expected to do.??If someone fulfills that ask, then after the person finishes reading, you, as the speaker, ask the person to provide some sort of analysis or you want the person to answer a question, you’ve gone too far.??To be clear, there’s not a problem with asking a question to check for understanding, but that should have been done beforehand.??

What to do instead:??You should have made your plan clear from the start.??When the request to read was made, it should have been coupled with you letting them know a question would follow and not just that a question would follow, but give the?exact?question you want the person to be prepared to answer once the reading is completed.??This sets up the person for success.??And even if the person does not know readily the answer to the question, because you shared the question upfront, there is an entire audience who can help them out.??But if you do not make it clear the person will need to answer a follow-up question from the start, then you have?everyone—not just the reader—with a deer-caught-in-headlights look.??However, to be fair, even if you give the question from the start, you can still put people in a position where they are stymied and unable (or unwilling) to give you an answer.??

You ask “Are any questions?”

You will always get crickets when you ask that question.??Always.??Trust and believe.??You may eventually get a response, but it won’t be until after some delay and some thinking.??“Are there any questions?” is a very very hard question to answer, especially if it’s posed after you present complex ideas.??It requires too much work—they have to think about the precise idea/concept that caused them to have a question, then formulate the question in words they feel comfortable using, check to see if it matches with the vernacular the presenter used, double-check to ensure it captures their query, then decide they actually want to put it out to the world.??That takes time.??So if you ask “Are there any questions?” wait a few seconds, then move on when you don’t get a response, it’s not fair to the audience.??You have not given them time to respond.??And don’t try to ask any one of these, which are cousins to “Are there any questions?:”

• What questions do you have?
• Does anyone care to share???
• What are your thoughts?
• What comes up for you?
• Any feedback from the group on this?

What to do instead:??Ask a very specific question.??For instance …

• Based on what you just read, what will you do differently???
• Based on the three concepts—[and repeat those three concepts and/or project them onto the screen]—we just covered, what is the one that is most confusing? Most interesting? Most exciting for you???
• When you examine the data, what trend do you see on line 4, and how does that inform what may be happening in line 3?

Help them out.??Don’t make it so hard on everyone.??Ask a great question where you still check for comprehension but that also leads to getting people actively involved with your presentation. And after you ask a great question, give them time to think! If I asked you what you had for dinner two days ago, even if it was something as simple as a salad, you’d have to pause and think, and that’s a relatively simple question! As such, give your listeners time to arrive at their answers to your questions.

Audience engagement is a thing of beauty when done right.??Think through your presentation and give your audience the experience you would want to have.??Choreograph each moment, thinking about how everything will land for your audience.

Learn more ways to improve your presentation and communication skills by subscribing and listening to?Own the Microphone ?podcast. You will get real strategies from Bridgett McGowen and her guests on how to own the microphone and deliver a message people love.?

Visit?Amazon ,?Barnes and Noble , or wherever you like to purchase your books to order a copy of?Real Talk: What Other Experts Won't Tell You About How to Make Presentations That Sizzle, 2e?for all of the presentation skills strategies that Bridgett uses.

Visit?BridgettMcGowen.com ?for more resources and services built on Bridgett’s more than two decades of experience as a professional speaker.?

If you are ready to share your message on a larger stage,?BMcTALKS Press ?is ready to make your dream of becoming a published author a reality.